


Neither Friend nor Foe (Cant Seem to Let You Go)

by Ace-o-Clubs (MercurialSky), MercurialSky



Series: ColdFlash Weeks [2]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Barry Allen With The Cold Gun, Bisexual Barry Allen, Breaking and Entering, Creepy Eobard Thawne | Harrison Wells, Episode: s01e10 Revenge of the Rogues, Hostage Situations, Light-Hearted, M/M, Pansexual Leonard Snart, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Relationship, Season/Series 01, Secret Identity, Snark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-04-27 17:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14430891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercurialSky/pseuds/Ace-o-Clubs, https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercurialSky/pseuds/MercurialSky
Summary: Instead of kidnapping Caitlin, Leonard and Mick kidnap Barry.ColdFlash Week A 2018 Day 2: Hostage Situation/Kidnap





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title has zero relevence to the fic and is just a lyric from Sara Bareilles' Gravity.  
> I wrote this in notes on my ipad and was supposed to edit the itaics in when I uploaded it, but I'm far to exausted to do it right now and this thing has taken so much longer to write than i thought so i'm just uploading it as it. sorry.  
> sorry for any typos too. i need sleep.

It started with a knock on Barry’s apartment door.

Well, it started when Barry was struck by lightning, or maybe when he was a child and the man in yellow came, or maybe-

There are a lot of starting places in somebody’s story, but this chapter started with a knock at an apartment door. A knock that wasn’t properly answered, because as Barry made his way to do so, the person on the other side grew impatient and burnt it down.

Through the flames Barry saw a familiar face holding a familiar gun.

‘Rory,’ he whispered, glancing around, trying to figure out what he could do. He couldn’t reveal his powers, he needed an escape. The fire escape!

Spinning around Barry quickly made his way through the apartment and opened the window, climbing onto the fire escape.

Before he could start to climb down, a beam of blinding white light froze the lower half of the fire escape.

‘I see that stopped you cold.’ Leonard Snart strolled out of the shadows below him, cold gun held against his shoulder, pointing skywards.

‘Nowhere to run now,’ Rory growled, standing in front of the window, heat gun aimed squarely at Barry.

Barry gripped the railing and threw himself over, falling down to the ground.

The landing was going to give him bruises, but it was better than whatever the Temperature Twins had planned for him. Okay, maybe coming up with names is more difficult than Barry thought. Cisco deserved more credit. Didn’t mean he had to be happy with Reverse-Flash though.

Rolling as he hit the ground, Barry sprang to his feet, hopefully not too fast, and started to run away. At normal person speeds. What was that again?

Before Barry could get far, the alley light up again and ice formed beneath his feet. Slipping, Barry fell down.

‘The Flash couldn’t outrun me, what make you think you can Bartholomew Allen?’ Barry clambered back to his feet but didn’t try to run again, Snart had his cold gun pointed right at his chest. ‘You can try to run again, we could just take the engineer or the girl instead. Or Doctor Wells. We only need one of you to bring the Flash in.’ Bring the Flash in? They _definitely_ didn’t know Barry was the Flash then. But what were they planning, and why did they need someone from STAR Labs to do it? _Anyone_ from STAR Labs apparently.

‘Looks like he’s coming with us Boss,’ Rory called as he jumped down from the fire escape, his own gun pointed at Barry. That landing had to be hell on his knees, especially at his age.

‘Looks like he is.’

* * *

  
Len ignored the sounds of struggle behind him as he set up the camera. Allen wasn’t escaping from Mick’s grasp, no matter how hard he tried.

‘Camera’s ready. Try not to struggle too loudly Allen, don’t want to have to do another take.’

With that warning done, and Allen being noticeably quieter, Len turned the camera on and looked into the lens.

‘Greetings citizens of Central City. I am Leonard Snart. But you can call me Cold-‘

‘I thought it was _Captain_ Cold?’ Allen interrupted, before grunting as Mick did something to remind him of his place.

‘I’m going to make this very simple for everyone. That red streak you’ve been hearing whispers about, the one mysteriously saving people these past few months? Well, surprise, he’s real. Calls himself the Flash-‘

‘Actually, he was named the Flash by a blog, the same blog that named him the Streak original- argh!’ Len turned around to glare at Allen, just as Mick twisted his arms into a clearly painful position.

‘ _Thank you_ , for that information, Allen,’ Len bit out before turning back to the camera, ‘Porter and Main, tonight, sundown. Come out, come out, wherever you are, Flash. Show the whole world you’re real. Or this man dies.’ Len started to reach for the camera off button when Mick let out a roar of pain. Turning around Len just managed to see Mick doubled over before Allen’s fist slammed into his own head.

‘Damnit,’ Len growled, grabbing the cold gun and shooting as Allen ran. Allen just managed to dodge out of the way, but he stepped back into Mick’s reach, and was quickly grappled and dragged over the a chair to be tied down.

‘Well, it appears that, despite his best efforts, Allen will continue to be our hostage. Tonight, Porter and Main. See you there Flash.’ With that final goodbye, Len turned the camera off and turned to glare at Allen.

‘I’m sorry, did I ruin your take?’ Allen bit out, glaring.

‘It’ll have to do. I don’t trust you with another take. Make sure he can’t wriggle out of those ropes.’ With that Len made his way to the other side of the warehouse, and went about broadcasting the recording. Carefully listening to make sure Mick didn’t do anything too damaging to their hostage.

‘You’re a friend of his, huh? He’s fast... like fire.’ Well, it appeared Mick was playing up his pyromania as usual. Fooling Allen into thinking him some brainless nut job.

‘Fire, its undefinable. Heat, light, energy. It’s an evolution when things burn.’ Len wondered if Mick was playing with his lighter, or staring wildly into Allen’s eyes as he waxed poetic. Or both.

‘You appear to have me mistaken for your therapist, Rory.’ Len grinned, another cop fooled by Mick Rory.

‘Oh no, Allen. I know exactly who I’m talking to.’

‘Then why do you sound like you’re trying to trick a shrink into thinking you’re beyond help?’ Len stopped what he was doing and turned to stare at the stacks blocking his view of Allen. He’d seen through Mick’s act, but more interestingly, he recognized it.

‘Don’t look so shocked Rory, I’ve used that trick myself.’

‘Yeah? Why’d you need a shrink?’

‘I saw a man moving as fast as a blur, trailing lightning, kill my mother. Fifteen years before the Flash started to make a name for himself. Everyone found it much more believable to blame my father, unconscious in the other room.’ There was an old bitterness in his voice, but more interesting...

‘A speedster? Operating fifteen years ago? Not the Flash I assume, which must make it the other one. The one the police encountered a few weeks back, who went after that tachyon device.’ Len stepped into view, studying their hostage.

‘The Man in Yellow. Or the _Reverse-Flash._ ’ Allen’s distaste for the second name was quite clear.

‘Not a fan of _that_ name, I see.’ Mick rose from where he’d been squatting next to Allen and moved back, so he was the same distance away as Len.

‘I just don’t like the connection to the Flash. Though I can see why. Yellow suit to the Flash’s red. Red lightning to the Flash’s Yellow. Evil to the Flash’s good.’ Allen recited, and was clearly reciting something he heard before. Although, that was an oddly convenient colour match up considering the Flash had no connection to the other one. Unless...

‘That’s quite the coincidence that. Zippy having the exact reversed colour scheme as the Flash. You sure they aren’t connected?’ Len mused, before frowning at Allen’s incredulous stare, ‘what?’

‘Zippy?’

‘Well you didn’t like Reverse-Flash, and Man in Yellow is such a mouthful.’

‘Isn’t Zippy a bit... juvenile?’

‘Would you prefer a mature, badass name for your mother’s Killer?’ Allen opened his mouth, about to argue some more before pausing, clearly thinking the idea over.

‘No, Zippy and Flash aren’t connected.’ Len allows a brief, victorious grin before responding.

‘How do you know. I’ll give you, the Flash looks too young to be an adult murderer from fifteen years ago, but perhaps a relative? Or maybe the suits were just made by the same person?’ Allen was already shaking his head.

‘I know the Flash’s father, it can’t be him. And Cis-‘ Allen cut off, a panicked expression. Cis... ah Francisco Ramon.

‘Ramon made the suit? Well he’s also too young to be involved. So how about we reverse the order a bit,’ Allen’s glare told Len that he didn’t miss the pun, ‘instead of Zippy coming before the Flash, perhaps the Flash came before Zippy.’

‘How, Zippy’s been around for at least fifteen years. The Flash has only been around for a few months.’

‘Not just the Flash, all these strange people with superpowers have only been around for a few months. Since the particle accelerator. Yes I figured that out. Zippy is the outlier, unless he isn’t. What if Zippy is a time traveler? He was inspired to become a super villain by the Flash, and then... something happened with your mom that pissed him off. So he time traveled back to fifteen years ago, and killed her. And then... decided to make himself the Flash’s nemesis earlier?’ There was something wrong with that theory but Len couldn’t figure out what.

‘He wasn’t after my mom.’ Allen’s face was ashen as he stared into the distance. ‘The night my mother died there was red _and yellow_ lightning. And something carried me fifteen blocks away. If the man in yellow time traveled, then maybe the other speedster was the Flash. From the future. Coming to protect me. The man in yellow didn’t kill my mother until I was taken beyond his reach,’ tears started to well in Allen’s eyes, ‘it’s my fault.’

Len stared at Allen. The way he looked now, it was the same way Lisa had looked, the first time Len had taken a beating for her.

‘No it’s not. Zippy was the one who went after you. You did nothing to deserve what he did to you. Even if you had, your mother certainly hadn’t. Look at me. This is on the man in yellow. Not you.’ Len wiped the tears from Allen’s eyes, pausing as he realized he’d made his way over to the man. He hadn’t even made the conscious decision to comfort Allen.

‘You’re strangely nice for someone who kidnapped me so he could kill someone else.’

‘Lenny isn’t going to kill the Flash,’ Mick huffed. Len turned to glare at his partner, and raised an eyebrow at the bottle of beer in his hand. When had he grabbed that?

‘What’s this about me not killing the Flash? Isn’t that the whole point of my plan?’

‘Your plan sucks. You love playing cops and robbers with the Flash too much to actually kill him.’ Mick grinned and took a swig.

‘You didn’t steal any of the cars, what happened to the painting?’ Allen had a worrying look on his face, like he was piecing something together, only there was nothing to piece.

‘Burnt it.’ Mick was looking far too amused right now.

‘You pulled two heists, back-to-back, with potentially huge payouts... and have nothing to show for it. You normally have months between heists.’

‘Because we need the Flash out of the way, with him gone we’ll be kings of the hill.’

‘Kings with no one to challenge them,’ Allen was grinning now, ‘you said the Flash challenged you to be better, to up your game. I looked through some of the cases you were a suspect in, there was no evidence linking you to any of them, except they were flawless and happened at about the time you were expected to commit a crime.

‘You’ve been sitting at the top of the hill most of your international criminal career, the Flash is only guarding Central. You could go do crimes anywhere else and he wouldn’t get in the way, You’d even still have the cold and heat guns, but you want to pick a fight with the Flash, prove you’re a big bad super villain. And when he didn’t show, you dropped the pretense of trying to steal something and just threatened him into showing up. Am I wrong?’ Allen grinned triumphantly.

‘Yes. Mick, time to go. Set up the bomb and let’s head out.’

‘Bomb?’ Allen had a clear note of worry in his voice. Good, now he’d drop that stupid idea-

‘Don’t worry, it’s on a delay and the blast’s tiny. You could hop out of the way if anyone’s careless enough to trigger it. Snart wants the Pigs scared not angry.’ And Mick goes and ruins that by blabbing. Wanting to keep the cops from being so riled up at one of their own being killed doesn’t mean anything!

Len shot Mick a glare as they made their way out of the warehouse. He was going to kill the Flash. Mick and Allen’s stupid idea be damned.

Back in the warehouse, Barry went over the idea Rory had given him in his head. It didn’t matter anyway, even if Snart was just a nerd who wanted to face off against a superhero, didn’t actually want to kill him, he still endangered other people without a thought. Barry would stop him, and then the police would take him in.

Now, how to actually get out there so he could take them in?

Barry pulled against the ropes holding him for a moment, before an idea came to him.

‘This is going to hurt,’ he muttered to himself before starting to vibrate his arms against the ropes. He gritted his teeth and gasped as rope burn blazed across his wrists for a moment before the ropes snapped.

‘Alright Snart, want me dead or not, I’m going to stop you.’ Barry flashed out of the warehouse, pausing long enough to see Rory had been telling to truth about the bomb: delayed and tiny.

* * *

  
Barry watched as the officers brought Rory and Snart in, Rory playing up his ‘brainless nut job’ act, and Snart smug-ing around.

‘You! How’d you get away from my bomb, it should have fried you!’ Rory roared glaring at Barry.

‘About a minute after you left the Flash came in and grabbed me. Not that he needed super speed to get me away from that bomb. You must have seriously messed up wiring it: it took forever to blow.’

‘I never mess up bombs,’ Rory growled, glaring.

‘So you meant for it to have such a long delay?’ Barry gave a mocking grin, and Mick roared and lunged forward. But the officers were alert from the last time and managed to drag him off, still yelling threats.

‘Allen, you really should refrain from taunting dangerous criminals.’ Snart grinned as he drew up next to Barry.

‘Then I guess I have nothing to say to you.’ Barry grinned and gestures towards the holding cells, ‘I believe your room is that way.’ Barry watched as Snart was escorted off, and Captain Singh walked up.

‘Allen, I’m glad to see you safe. I was worried there.’

‘So was I, Captain. But the Flash saved me.’

‘That he did,’ Singh nodded and left.

‘He’s very abrupt,’ Cisco noted as he and Barry made their way out of the precinct.

‘He’s busy,’ Barry corrected, before nodding at the box with the cold and heat guns Cisco was carrying, ‘they’re returning those to you?’

‘Yeah, Eddie said they wouldn’t need them for the trial, and they wanted them destroyed as soon as possible.’

‘Snart and especially Rory have a lot of priors. That and the hostage video, the DA probably feels it would be safer to destroy them now, rather than risk them getting misplaced during a trial they probably won’t be needed for. Do you mind if I destroy them. It would be great for my peace of mind.’ Barry tried not to fidget guiltily as he asked. What he was planning wasn’t right, but it was something he needed to do.

‘Oh, sure, you know where the incinerator is, right. You can head over there and do it now.’ Cisco handed the box over.

‘Thanks, Cisco.’ Barry carefully held the box close to his chest, glanced around to make sure there were no witnesses, and took off running.

Arriving at the STAR Labs incinerator, Barry activated it, before carefully dropping the heat gun in. He took the cold gun out, and looked around for any cameras, before running off.

* * *

  
Barry woke from his nightmare, images of red lightning and the sounds of screaming echoed in his mind as he glanced frantically around the room, gasping for breath.

His eyes fell on the cold gun on his bedside cabinet and he grabbed it, powering it up.

Clutching the gun tight Barry carefully scanned the room, making sure that there was nothing out of place. And there wasn’t anything. Except some light coming in from the living room.

Barry froze as his mind caught up to what he’d seen. Had he turned the light off when he went to bed? He thought so, he had to have, he didn’t remember, feeling his breathing get out of control, Barry took a deep breath, and relaxed his grip on the cold gun, careful not to accidentally pull the trigger, he’d probably just left the light on, it was nothing, the Man in Yellow - Zippy - wouldn’t have turned a light on and waited, he would have just killed Barry, except he hadn’t tried to kill Barry at the precinct, he’d waited until Barry had seen him, maybe he wanted to fight Barry, not just kill him, maybe he-

Barry pulled the blankets off and rose from the bed, cold gun held in front of him ready to fire. He was going to check on the light, prove it was nothing, and go back to bed.

It was nothing, he’d just forgotten to turn it off, that was all, he’d just forgotten to-

‘Cocoa isn’t cocoa without the mini-marshmallows, and you’re out.’ Barry spun around and fired.

As his finger squeezed the trigger, his panic activated his powers, his perceptions accelerating faster than the gun could operate and giving him time to recognize the speaker. Snart.

Barry jerked the gun to the side and time resumed its normal speed as the beam froze a portion of the wall.

‘Well, I wasn’t expecting that,’ Snart studied the frozen patch, before taking a sip of his cocoa, ‘I suppose I should have expected a chilly reception. I did kidnap you.’

‘I thought you were the man- Zippy. Maybe don’t break into the apartment of someone whose been through two violent home invasions? Just a tip,’ Barry powered down the cold gun and took several deep breaths.

‘I suppose I should apologize for that. But apologies aren’t really my thing. Sorry.’ Len took another drink from his cocoa, making himself look like even more of an asshole.

‘What are you even doing here Snart? Want to kidnap me again? I don’t think you’ll be able to pull that off alone and without your gun.’ Snart carefully placed his cup on the table beside him.

‘Speaking of that gun, why do you have it? Last I heard they were being taken apart by STAR Labs.’

‘I took it, wanted to make sure I had a weapon to use against the- Zippy, if he attacked me.’ Snart rose from the seat and walked up to Barry, smirking.

‘You wanted a security blanket, cute. I guess I can’t take it from you now. I’ll have to stick to plan A’

‘Plan A? What are you planning Snart?’

‘Call me Len,’

Len?

‘Why would I do that? _Snart_.’ Barry stressed the mans surname, just to show how little he was inclined to follow that request.

‘Hmm, it’s my name. You were right, Barry. I didn’t want to kill the Flash. Didn’t even realize how much fun it was to go against him, how much I’d miss it, until I lost the cold gun. So I won’t be trying to kill him anymore. I was hoping to make a deal with him actually. I’d stop killing innocents, no more kidnapping, and he doesn’t let me or anyone I’m working with get arrested. Do you think he would go for it?’ Snart brushed a strand of Barry’s hair out of his eyes. Why was he so close?’

‘I really don’t think he’d go for it. And I’d be against it even if he tried.’ Barry blinked as he tried to wrap his head around that statement. Talking in third person was confusing.

‘Shame, guess I’ll have to go with plan A then after all.’ And with that Snart leaned toward and pressed his lips to Barry’s

Barry stared at Snart in shock as they separated, time slowing down as his mind raced, trying to catch up to what just happened. Snart kissed him?

‘Plan A? You’re not gonna try and seduce me into convincing the Flash to help you, Snart. Because I won’t.’

‘Oh no, Plan A is something else, I’m seducing you because I want to date you. And like I said: call me Len.’ Snart made his way over to the door.

‘That’s it? You kiss me and then just leave?’

‘I figured you’d want some time to work through things. I’ll be seeing you later. Sweet dreams Barry.’ Snart walked out of the apartment, closing the door behind him.

‘Do you really need to have the last word that badly?’ Barry called out.

‘Yes.’ Snart called back, footsteps trailing away from the door.

Snart was out of his mind, Barry wasn’t going to date him, he would get in so much trouble at work, and he was the Flash, he couldn't date Captain Cold, not even if he didn’t have his cold gun.

Barry pressed his fingers to his lips, they were tingling. He was pretty sure that was only supposed to happen in fiction.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we see Mick and Lisa’s reaction to Len’s interest and Len explains his plans to get the guns back. We also get a look at how Eobard is taking recent developments. Hint: not well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. This fic was originally only meant to be a one shot, but I had ideas, and people liked it so I continued it. But, I was planning on doing some of the other ship week so I put this on hold, and then I never got around to doing the other ship weeks, and didn't write for months.  
> This is shorter than I was expecting, but I got pretty much everything I wanted out, so its fine.

Mick followed Snart and Lisa into the new safehouse -an apartment in the area formally controlled by the Darbinyan family- and checking the fridge, it was stocked.

“So, that went well, Lenny. You got your butt handed to you and lost your weapons. I really wasn’t expecting you to need me to break you out. I assumed it was just your usual over planning.” Lisa sat herself down, watching her brother carefully.

“We didn’t take into account what would happen if our guns streams met. The explosion allowed the flash to take our weapons and there wasn’t much we could do without them.” Snart slouched against the wall, always determined to be the outlier.

“Not that we would have done much _with_ them.” Mick commented, settling down in a chair across from Lisa and opening his beer.

“ _Mick,_ ” Snart growled, knowing that Mick wasn’t going to let up any time soon.

“What’s this?” Lisa asked, looking between the two of them.

“Snart’s found himself a new hobby. Chasing after the Flash. Hasn’t had a thrill like that in years, has he? That’s why you let Red win.” Mick grinned over his bottle, daring Snart to contradict him.

“Let him win? Lenny?”

“He outmaneuvered us. Because his tech support knew more about how our guns worked than we did. That won’t happen next time.” Snart glared back.

“Pretty sure I heard him yelling that he couldn’t get us to shoot each other. I didn’t figure out what he meant until the explosion, but I’m betting you did.” Mick grinned, challenging Snart. He hated lying to his sister, leaving something out? He could do that, but outright lying to her? Never.

“He’s… a challenge. I haven’t had one of those for a long time. It’ll be interesting to see how this develops.”

“And assuming you can get your fancy weapons back. I take it you have a plan?” Lisa grinned.

“STAR Labs will have most likely destroyed the weapons already. So, we’ll have to find a way to convince their engineer to build them again.”

“Maybe not. That cop kid you were flirting with was pretty shaken up by that other speedster, he might have taken the guns for himself.” Mick took another sip from his drink, leaning back in his chair.

“Cop kid? Your hostage, he was a cop?” Lisa straightened up, looking alarmed.

“He was a CSI, and he’s only been working there two years, and most of one of those he was on medical leave. The other cops aren’t going to be to vindictive over him getting shaken up a bit. Even if he did want a weapon to use against Zippy, I doubt he’d keep the Heat Gun, the Cold gun maybe, but he’d have no use for yours.”

Mick frowned, something about that reply was bothering him.

“You told me you memorized everything about the guns, could you just rebuild them again yourself?” Lisa asked.

“I could,” Snart acknowledged, nodding, “And that’s certainly plan B. But it’s not just getting the guns back. We also have to make sure the Flash doesn’t just speed us into prison the moment we show our faces.”

“So what’s Plan A, boss?” Mick asked.

“Cisco Ramon, he’s the one who built the Cold and Heat Guns, we just need to find some leverage to get him to build them again for us.”

“How do you know he’s the one who built the guns?” Lisa asked.

“Because he’s the one who requested the parts. A few months after the Particle Accelerator blew, must have been when the Flash first showed up at STAR Labs, probably looking for help understanding his powers. Six months later the Flash is trained enough to start going out fighting crime. One month later he goes up against me.” Snart grinned smugly, patting himself on the back for his prior victory against the Flash.

“How are we gonna make sure the Flash doesn’t just ‘speed us into prison’ when we have our guns back?” Mick asked, taking another drink.

“We’ll have leverage. Ramon. We make him build our guns, and then go out and cause some trouble. When the Flash shows up, we use Ramon as a hostage to get him to leave us alone.”

“And what about the next time we go out, we can’t keep taking hostage every time we commit a crime. We’ll run out of friends of the Flash.”

“What do you mean _we_?” Snart stared at Lisa, “You want in on this?”

“I want us to spend more time together. If that means being supervillains straight out of those comic books you loved to read, then I guess I’ll have to pick a name.”

“I think the kid usually does the naming. You’ll need more than just a gun.” Snart warned.

“Well, we’re about to have a genius on tap, might as well tap him.” Lisa grinned. “So, keeping the Flash out of our way?”

“Oh, I don’t want him out of the way, Mick right, it’s far too much fun. Which is why once we’ve had our little face off with the Flash, we’ll return to Ramon, and threaten him into revealing the Flash’s identity. Then we can sort out a deal with the Flash: he plays by our rules and we play by his. He doesn’t throw us in prison, we don’t shout his name from the rooftops.

“Because we waited until facing off against the Flash to get his name, they’ll think it was in desperation, and underestimate us and our future plans. Meaning we can get away with what we want _and_ get a good fight in.” the smug grin on Snart’s face was the one he always got when explaining his genius plan, so it was a perfect time to take the wind out of his sails. Mick had finally figured out what was bothering him about Snart’s knowledge of Allen.

“Or we could just ask your boy toy. You were pretty hung up on him when we had him hostage. And considering how much you know about him, I’d say that’s not such a recent development.”

“What do you mean Mick?” Lisa asked, while Snart pulled away from the wall, frowning.

“You knew his _medical history_. And you made up a name atrocious for _anyone_ , let alone a supervillain, just to comfort him. And you let him get away with ruining your video. Your sense of drama alone should have prevented _that_.” Mick drained the last of his beer before looking at Snart.

“So maybe we should just ask Allen if he’ll get the Flash to play along with what you want, and maybe you won’t alienate him.” Now to see how attached Snart was to the kid.

“I highly doubt the Flash would just let us do what we want on the whim of a CSI, and that’s assuming Allen is interested in throwing away his career for a criminal twice his age. So no, I don’t plan on asking Allen for help.” Snart sneered, trying to sound mocking, but coming off as bitter. He then walked out of the room, heading to one of the bedrooms.

“He’s got it bad.” Lisa murmured, a concerned frown marring her features.

“And we’re gonna have to deal with it.” Mick snorted, burying his own concern, as he got up to grab another beer.

* * *

 

Eobard Thawne was sick of dealing with Leonard Snart’s _bullshit_.

It was worrying when Snart had shown up, with a weapon that could do great harm to Barry, but once he’d escaped with his jewel Eobard had known it was over. Snart had what he wanted, and when he returned, Eobard just had to make sure Barry knew the so-called _Captain Cold_ was beneath him. Scum to be left for the police to deal with.

And it was working. Until Snart, who in the future would take every opportunity to complain about how hard the Flash made his life, how difficult it made his job, how much better his life would be if the Flash died. Until Snart, despite all that, decided to _bait out_ the Flash. Because apparently along with being a world class drama queen with a specialty for _whinging_ , Snart was also a _fucking liar_.

But not only did he and his trigger happy pyromaniac of a partner guilt Barry into showing up for a fight, they decided to threaten him into doing it too. And they did so by _kidnapping_ Barry. Those filthy, ignorant _mutts_ had laid hands on Barry Allen, with no knowledge of what they were defiling. And then they had escaped from police custody after Barry rightfully beat them. They should be rotting in dull, lifeless cells, languishing in their defeat, not roaming free to plan another attack against the Flash.

“Gideon, show me Barry Allen’s apartment again.” Eobard growled, glaring at the holographic screen as it appeared.

Barry was settling back into bed after his _uninvited guest’s_ departure. The Cold Gun depowered and left on his bedside table. That was a concern, but not much of one. Eobard was fast enough that the threat of the Cold Gun was a minor one, especially in the hands of one as against the idea of taking a life as Barry Allen.

But Leonard Snart was a concern. Somehow his brief time with Barry had lead him to believing himself infatuated, and now he was pursuing Barry. It was hopeless of course, Barry would never shack up with a criminal, especially not one as low as _Snart_. Even if he was, he was to in love with Iris West to even think about someone else. Even with Eobard’s least interesting ancestor acting as a particularly dull roadblock in that regard for now.

“Gideon, show me the future.” The brief flicker of concern Eobard felt was quickly abolished as the familiar article by Iris West-Allen appeared. The future was on track, and Snart would not derail it, no matter how hard he tried.

Eobard returned to his wheelchair and left the time vault, ready to return to his life as Harrison Wells. As he left, he failed to notice the author’s name flicker on the page. The Allen disappearing briefly.

* * *

 

Lisa and Mick both watched as Lenny made his way back into the apartment.

“So where were you?” Lisa asked, the demand not hidden in the slightest.

“Barry Allen’s apartment, I was trying plan C.” Lenny made his was into the made room and dropped onto a couch.

“Plan C?” Mick asked, following him.

“Plan A: Kidnap Ramon, get him to build the guns and get the Flash’s name. Plan B: build the guns ourselves, find some other leverage over the Flash. Plan C: Ask Barry nicely for the guns and the Flash’s support. He had the Cold Gun, but I figured he needed it more than me. Since I can get a replacement.”

“So you’re going after him then?” Lisa asked. “I take it we don’t have to remind you of the risks, or the chances of this working out?”

“No, I know them. But I think its worth it.” Lenny looked over at Lisa, meeting her eyes, “did I interfere with you and Sam?”

Lisa hesitated, this thing with Allen, mixing it with the Flash, it was going to end badly, but... Lenny had been there for her with Sam, let her make her own choices even as he saw where they were going to lead, and even let Sam work with him after it blew up, accepting Lisa’s forgiveness.

“I guess we’ll just have to hope it works out for you.” Lisa grinned shakily.

“This is going to be a disaster.” Mick grunted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing Eobard was the most fun I've had in months. I just love the idea of him being petty and hating Snart because he draws Barry's attention.  
> The next installment in this series is going to take a while to be uploaded, because I want to write the whole thing out before I begin uploading chapters.  
> I also want to work on one of the next ColdFlash Week prompts, I figure I'll get more of them done if I start early.  
> Holy typos, Batman. I really should have gone over this sooner!


	3. Hold Me Without Touch (Keep Me Without Chains)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Next Work uploaded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an excerpt of the first chapter of the next part of this series, because I have 72 people subscribed to this, and can't see how many are subscribed to the Fragile Strength series. I don't want anyone to miss out.

**Summary:** In the aftermath of his kidnapping by Captain Cold, Barry finds himself at odds with the people around him. They all tell him to forget about Snart and focus on being a hero, but how can he with the feeling of the other man’s lips echoing on his own? Barry’s confusion only rises as a visitor from the future leaves behind a message that shakes Barry’s world to its core. Barry’s life has been attached to marionette strings for years, and its going to take time to cut them off.

* * *

Barry ran up the steps to the bank, pain lancing up his sides from his injuries, mentally noting that it was same bank that the Mardon brothers had hit before his coma. And Clyde had hit again after he woke up. He hoped nothing bad would happen to the bank, with so many robberies.

“Allen, glad you could join us.” Captain Singh scowled as Barry walked through the doors into the bank. He was understandably in a bad mood already, one of his officers had been shot.

“Sorry, results for Detective Smythe’s case came in, and he wanted me to explain things in person.” Smythe _always_ wanted in person explanations when Barry was the one working the case. Other CSI’s could just email the results but for some reason Smythe didn’t trust Barry.

“How’s word on Officer Brown?” Barry asked, looking around the bank, his eyes falling on a bloodstain across the room.

“The Paramedics say he should be fine, but we won’t know for certain until surgery’s done. He did manage to shoot one of the Royal Flush Gang on there way out.” Singh nodded to a spray of blood on the wall by the doors, a bullet lodged in the brick.

“The Reston’s are still in Iron Heights, right?” Barry asked as he put his bag down and opened his kit. “This isn’t just them again?”

“No. We’ve checked, the Reston’s are in Iron Heights, we’re going to send a detective over to see if they have any idea who the copycats could be. But it might just be unconnected criminals picking up an identity to steal infamy. Why’d you bring a bag?” Barry glanced back and saw Singh squatting next to his bag, the bag that had the Cold Gun.

“Oh, I forgot I was carrying that when I left the precinct. Its nothing.” Barry turned back to the blood, carefully taking a sample, and hoping Singh didn’t notice how tense he was. He would get in real trouble if he was caught with the Cold Gun.

“Well, be more careful next time, Allen. See if there’s anything else you can find to help us track down these people.” Barry glance back as Singh stood, the bag forgotten, and walked over to the detectives interviewing witnesses: Grey and Todd.

Barry let his shoulders sag with relief, Singh was right, he needed to be more careful with the Cold Gun. Gently putting the blood sample away, Barry gathered up his kit and bag and made his way around the bank, making sure there was nothing he could find that would lead to the Royal Flush Gang. He was unsurprised when nothing turned up inside, and all he found outside was an oil leak left behind by one of the motorbikes.

Barry winced as he crouched down to get a sample. The burns from the Heat Gun had mostly healed, but the frostbite hadn’t, and then there was the combined mix of frostbite and burns on his chest from when he’d tanked both guns.

“Oil spill?” Barry jumped and almost lost his balance, looking back at Singh who’d come up behind him.

“Yeah, it probably won’t be much use, but every little bit helps, right?”

“Certainly not as useful as sheep poo,” Singh mused.

“Or sugar,” Barry added as he took a sample, remembering the other case he’d worked on before his coma.

“Sugar?” Singh asked, as Barry remembered that he wasn’t supposed to have been working in Starling City then.

“Ah, nothing. I’ll head back to the lab, get started on the sample.” Barry stood, repressing a wince and gathered his kit and bag back up.

“All right, don’t take too long.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [My Tumblr is ace-o-clubs](https://ace-o-clubs.tumblr.com/)


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